We tried out 3 comic viewers on Android

If you’re into any one of the zillions of great graphic novels out there, a comic book viewer/reader is essential for reading cbr archives on Android or iOS, or whatever platform you’re on. I still do love the feel of a real book in my hands and the tactile joy of flipping pages back and forth, but for reading comics and graphic novels on the go, a cbr reader is key. Granted, a tablet is better than a phone for reading comics but in a pinch, I will read some comics on my phone if I just can’t wait to get to a larger screen. With that in mind, we’ll be talking about these 3 comics book readers from the perspective of a phone and not a tablet.

Perfect Viewer

The gang behind Perfect Viewer left no stone unturned because man, talk about options. You want options? Perfect Viewer‘s got ’em! However, Perfect Viewer doesn’t like to brag so all of those options are available to you from one discreet little tab at the top of the screen so it won’t interfere with the most important thing: reading comics! The only thing Perfect Viewer is guilty of is having too many options, but even then, I don’t think that’s such a crime when the app itself delivers. It’s easy to use and it works.

Some key features of Perfect Viewer include bookmarks, Chromecast integration and plenty of orientation options. We dig it.Developer: Rookie001Download it from Google Play

A Comic Viewer

A Comic Viewer (ACV) has been been around for a long time and had been my go-to comic viewer to install first whenever I changed my phone or when referring a friend to a useful comic viewer. The problem is that in recent years/months, ACV seems to suffer from out of memory issues when trying to open cbr files. I initially saw this happen back on my old LG Nexus 5, but seeing the issue anew on my new HTC M9, well, that’s a bit of a problem. Giving ACV the benefit of the doubt, I thought that my memory was being chewed up by HTC Sense, but that wasn’t the case. I was able to open up a 35 page comic book archive on the other 2 apps, but not ACV unfortunately.Developer: Robot MediaDownload it from Google Play

Challenger Comics Viewer

Challenger Comics Viewer had no issues opening up any comic or graphic novel that I tossed its way, which is the first test you do with any comic book viewer. One feature that I did find useful (and so obvious after the fact) was the option to include vertical scrolling. Correct me if I’m wrong. but most other viewers all seem to have the option to orient either right to left or left to right. Vertical scrolling is so obvious and natural considering that vertical scrolling is how most of us use the web, so it’s inherently the most natural.

Aside from that, Challenger Comics Viewer was smooth with a big simple to use interface. Less is more and we like that.Developer: The ChallengerDownload it from Google Play